The Bookshop Band

Inspired by the raw power of the Stooges and the glam rock excess of the New York Dolls, Birmingham, England, native Dave Kusworth formed his first band (TV Eye) at the age of 16. Since then, the versatile singer/songwriter/guitarist has done time in the Hawks, Dogs D'Amour, the Jacobites (with ex-Swell Maps mastermind Nikki Sudden), the Bounty Hunters, and the Tenderhooks, as well as his own Dave Kusworth Group. His songs, gutter-bound tales of rock & roll heartache that bring to mind the Faces and the Rolling Stones, have been covered by Evan Dando and Mercury Rev and feted by the likes of Tom Waits, Chuck Prophet, and Peter Buck.

Deluxe 9-CD box set all re-mastered from the original ¼” master tapes, plus seven inch single of their 1974 flexi-disc ‘Monty Python’s Tiny Black Round Thing’. Although the seven inch single has "33 1/3 RPM" shown on both sides, this is actual a 45 RPM single.

When Happyness first burst into the public conscience with 2013’s debut single It’s On You, their spirited take on US college rock was as big a surprise as it was an instant hit. The resulting full length, Weird Little Birthday, went on to feature in many of 2014’s End of Year album lists. Worldwide tours, an NME Award, a re-issue on the much-loved labels Moshi Moshi Recordings (Bar/None in US), and millions of Spotify plays later, it is with some anticipation now that the band finally reveal the full details of the follow-up.

Soft Machine are an English rock and jazz band from Canterbury formed in mid-1966, named after the novel The Soft Machine by William S. Burroughs.Australian poet, guitarist, singer, composer and performance artist Daevid Allen moved to Paris in 1960. Inspired by the emerging 'Beat Generation' of writer's works he'd discovered whilst working in a Melbourne bookshop he moved into a room in Paris's 'Beat Hotel' and spent time around the city's Latin Quarter. There, he rubbed shoulders with Terry Riley and William S. Burroughs, gaining free access to the area's jazz clubs. Influenced by the music philosophies of Sun Ra he formed the Daevid Allen Trio, a free-jazz outfit which performed in Burroughs' theatre pieces based on that writer's novel 'The Ticket That Exploded'.In 1961 Allen travelled to Canterbury, England, where he met 16 year-old Robert Wyatt (who was the son of his landlord). Their mutual interest in jazz resulted in a few gigs, in London in 1963, as the Daevid Allen Trio (with Hugh Hopper on bass and Mike Ratledge occasionally guesting on piano). Around the same time, Wyatt formed the Wilde Flowers with the Hopper brothers, Hugh and Brian Hopper, with Kevin Ayers on vocals.